Romanian Romgaz To Negotiate Gas Acquisition For Nabucco Pipeline

If Romania fails to close gas acquisition contracts in the Middle East, it will not have any alternative source for gas supply.

"Trangaz, which cannot be a gas supplier by law, transferred its right to Romgaz two-three months ago. Unless it moves fast, we risk losing this opportunity and only become a transit country," a Transgaz director, Vlad Pavlovschi, said Wednesday.

Pavlovschi said all the other members of Nabucco consortium have already had talks with producers in the Caspian zone but none of them signed a contract yet.

The companies in the consortium are entitled to reserve 50% of the gas transport capacity through Nabucco, that will be equally divided to the six companies in the consortium, namely Austria’s OMV AG (OMV.VI), Hungary’s MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU), Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, Turkish BOTAS and Germany’s RWE AG (RWEOY), while the rest will be assigned by auction in September.

Romania is entitled to transport 2 billion cubic meters of gas through Nabucco.

Nabucco pipeline project is aimed to supply natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Central Europe via Turkey and Romania, bypassing Russia.
The pipeline is owned by a consortium lead by Austria’s OMV and is expected to become operational by 2011-2012.